Rowland Hassall

Rowland Hassall (31 March 1768 – 28 August 1820), born in England, was a missionary in Tahiti for a short period of time and in New South Wales for the rest of his life.

[2] Hassall contracted black measles[1] or cholera[3] and having barely survived the disease, he vowed to serve God.

Inspired by Hassall and other field preachers, Burder wrote the book "Village Sermans".

[2][3] At the time of their arrival, Port Jackson was a small community, with British officers living in seven huts made of wattle and daub with a thatched roof.

[1] William Henry and James Cover established an itinerant ministry at preaching stations, including Kissing Point and Toongabbie.

[2] Hassall was a "Calvinistically-oriented Methodist and Presbyterian itinerant preacher" who rode on horseback to serve these communities.

[4] The Hassalls built a house on a plot of land that they were granted seven miles from Port Jackson.

Hassall raised funds for books and monies for Kissing Point school, which was operated by Matthew Hughes.

He held the position for two years until it became apparent that there was ongoing fraudulent activity that Hassall overlooked.

[2] The Hassalls had nine children including Thomas, Samuel, Jonathan, Mary Cover, James, Eliza Cordelia, Susannah Marsden, Ann, and Elizabeth.

[4] Hassall's life was said to have been a "continued example of religion and piety, extensive benevolence and hospitality", and he had "never lost sight of his original designation as a Missionary, and continued to the latest period of his life zealously to perform the duties of one, by preaching the Gospel in almost all parts of the colony".

[2] He was an ardent correspondent and his letters are "one of the main sources for the early social history of New South Wales.